Re: Vint Cerf Says Government Needs To Encourage Internet Competition

[Tom Liotta <qsrvbas@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Chuck Lewis wrote:

> Interesting read:
>
> http://tinyurl.com/4nrjeb

Not much new in there, but I really liked the closing paragraph:

>> The Internet is also the place to go for tax forms, Social 
Security forms, immigration forms, and more, Weight wrote. "But if 
government agencies are going to balance their budgets by making 
access to their services, forms and information primarily available 
via electronic means, then there needs to be some sort of 
coordinated support for that access," Weight said. <<

I've always had a nervous feeling about the 'post roads/offices' 
clause of the Constitution here in the U.S.A.

"I can't say what art is, but I know it when I see it."

Can the same be said about 'post roads/offices'? How is sending info 
over the internet different in principle from sending info over post 
roads through post offices? We easily imagine e-"mail" as a concept. 
We worked up "Simple Mail Transport Protocol" and "Post Office 
Protocol". We have addresses that get delivered to; we send and 
receive. Delivery is over routes.

In the past decade, I've gone to regional IRS sites to pick up 
various forms, and the only way to get some of them were via the 
internet. (I've lived in a couple isolated areas where 'regional 
offices' aren't well stocked.)

_Should_ we expect a Federal effort to be involved in it somewhere?

Tom Liotta